| Description |
American Elegy is a novella addressing the cultural and ecological decline of the United States. It is set in Salt Lake City and Park City, from June to September of 1991, with intrusions from various dates in the fictive present. The narrator, Jack, is a recent college graduate who has expectations of the American dream, but, rightly or wrongly, can't seem to get a job in his field of study, due to the poor economic conditions. His experiences lead him to adjust his expectations of life. The work is troubled from the beginning with a prologue describing Jack's nightmares incurred from his traumatic experiences concerning Ian, an acquaintance from his workplace, the hospital. Ian is a schizophrenic/bipolar patient in the psychiatric ward. His schizophrenia reflects the diverse and often conflicting nature of American culture. His bipolar disorder reflects the historical flux of conservatism and liberalism. Ian's suicide is indicative of America's more recent self-centered, short sighted, self-destructive tendencies. Zina, Jack's Native American girlfriend, is a motif, and a western original. She comforts him as the land comforts him, but when he applies western ideals to her and becomes possessive, she leaves him. Boy loses girl. Period. She accompanies him in his travels to his old haunts and thereby becomes equated with the ecology of the surroundings; when Jack treats her poorly, and squanders her love, like the land, she is lost forever. Patrice is the archvillain. She becomes lonely because she can't make any longterm friends, and lets Jack stay with her while he's looking for that American dream of his. She has the worst characteristics of both sexes, and signifies the baby-boom generation of greedy, self-centered, ethically questionable locusts. Patrice brings the conservative mindset (which is supplied by the cultural setting) into question as she alternately plays with it, scorns it, and unconsciously imitates it. It is Jack though, who declines to help Ian because it IS convenient, who mistreats Zina, because he is an ugly American. He realizes his error too late, though, and this occurs because I suspect people his age and culture will make the same mistakes. |
